Options for a good XMPP client?

[poVoq]

https://github.com/geobra/harbour-shmoose/issues/55

Some interesting comments from the Smoose developer.

[poVoq]

I played around with the UT Movim app a bit. Actually works reasonably well (but needs an update to Qtweb and SDK 16:04). The advantage of Movim is that it doesn't work like other XMPP clients internally (uses websockets instead) and thus should potentially work better on UT? The build in federated micro-blogging system is nice as well.

[Krille]

Hi, I will update the app in the next couple of days. Isn't much work

[poVoq]

Just a small heads up. I got a prototype working based on ConverseJS. Not ready yet for a release, but you can follow development here:
https://github.com/poVoq/conversejs-ubports

It's a HTML5 app using qtweb so don't expect great performance, but it seems quite usable on my Nexus5 so far.

The main issue right now is that it seems like the regular method of font loading in a browser does not work in a UT webview container. Anyone got a tip how to do that?

[poVoq]

You can download a prototype version of my ConverseJS wrapper here now:
https://github.com/poVoq/conversejs-ubports/releases/tag/0.1

I can't release this on the open-store due to the automatic app review restricting absolute paths in all apps. I tried about everything I could think of to avoid having the "/opt/click.ubuntu.com/" string in the ConverseJS settings.

[poVoq]

Found a working work-around which managed to by-pass the open-store restriction:

https://open-store.io/app/conversejs.povoq

Help to improve it appreciated, although other than some CSS fixes, most work has to be done upstream in the main ConverseJS.

Ideas to improve performance would be great.

Also: is there a way to pass through browser notifications to the main system notifications in qtwebview?

[AppLee]

@poVoq for information about the notifications, refers to : http://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/appdev/guides/pushnotifications.html

But AFAIK, there is no such think through QTWebView, maybe you can catch the notifications somehow and use the push notifications system

[poVoq]

@AppLee no I mean the HTML browser notifications that modern browsers use to directly pass through web-site notifications to the system notification queue. I am aware that these will not work if an app goes to sleep, but that can be suppressed with UT-tweek tool.

Push notifications are a totally different beast that I am looking into here: https://github.com/poVoq/conversejs-ubports/issues/1
(if there was an implementation for this, it would work with any XMPP client on UT, not only mine)

[AppLee]

@poVoq I understand what you want to achieve.
But I don't think confined apps can access the notification layer without using the push notifications system.

[Edit] Have a look there : https://open-store.io/app/pushclient.christianpauly
It's easy to understand but I don't have time to dive in

[poVoq]

@AppLee Push notifications work slightly different with XMPP, as it already has build in support for that. In theory you just need to pass back your device identifier and JID of the push service to the XMPP server (ConverseJS has build in support for that) and the XMPP server (if it has mod_push enabled) contacts the push notification service of the app developer (via S2S connection). The problem is that such an XMPP compatible server software that talks to the Ubports push notification server does not exist yet. There are existing projects though that seem quite close to what is needed.

Edit: if the Ubports push notification server would understand XML messages it could likely also be contacted directly by the XMPP server. I think the original Android push notification system works like that, it is just that Google decided it would only allow registered servers to contact their push notification server, so a proxy server by the XMPP app developer is still needed. I think for Ubports push notification server is is not the case.

[poVoq]

The developer of P2 is willing to add Ubports push notification support for XMPP clients, but it would need to be implemented by someone with Java knowledge. According to him it should be really easy though.

On an unrelated note, this might also be a portable qt native xmpp client: https://github.com/ksiazkowicz/lightbulb

[poVoq]

Just as an update to this: I talked to the developer of Jabbercat/aioxmpp and it seems it would be fairly easy to write a new mobile friendly qt quick controls 2 UI on top of his abstracted jclib (pure Python):
https://github.com/jabbercat/jclib

I am toying with the idea of having a go at it, but if a more experienced Python developer would take it up that would probably be more successful.

[poVoq]

Another but also Javascript based option that seems promising (but still needs a bit of work) is this:
https://github.com/nioc/xmpp-web

It is even PWA capable, so on Android for example it works quite nicely as a progressive web app already. I hope PWA will be added to UT at some point, as it is really a neat standard for webapps.

[mito77]

Hi everyone, I'm New on ubports, on android I use Conversation , but on Ubports I want to use xmpp client for Muc chatroom support like gajim on Debian . I try with converseJS but don't work because I can’t connect .

[poVoq]

@mito77 said in Options for a good XMPP client?:

Hi everyone, I'm New on ubports, on android I use Conversation , but on Ubports I want to use xmpp client for Muc chatroom support like gajim on Debian . I try with converseJS but don't work because I can’t connect .

Hi @mito77 can you explain better what you mean with "can't connect"? What XMPP server are you using? If it is self-hosted, make sure it is up to date and configured to expose BOSH or websockets as alternative connection methodes. Due to the webapp nature of ConverseJS you can not connect with the regular 5222 port as Conversations/Gajim etc. does.

[mito77]

@poVoq thank you . it work very good with bosh or wss link . I found on the wiki of the xmpp service. but ConverseJS dont save my login, and don't save my wss or my bosh. When I
restart the app it's blank . https://wiki.jabberfr.org/JabberFR
it's because the client don't have XEP-0156 natively

[poVoq]

@mito77 the wss and bosh address is saved in the app, just not displayed again in the form field.

However you need to put in again your JID and password each time. I have some ideas how to add an option to stay logged in, but doing so (with the option to also log out again) is a bit complicated.

Xep-0156 is supported in the new upstream version of ConverseJS. I need to get around updating my app to it.

[mito77]

Hi Povoq I'm reconnected again and again on a muc, and the error message is : "This groupchat has reached its maximum number of participants". Or we are three people in the muc chatroom.

[poVoq]

@mito77 this isn't really a support thread, and in any case that sounds more like a upstream ConverseJS issue. But what is the actual limit you set? I think in XMPP each connected device is counted as a user, even if representing only three actual people. Maybe there is an issue that devices are recognized as new while the old ones need some time to time out? No idea, just guessing

[boky]

@poVoq Is it possible to implement port 5222 support?